Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Straight white guys still get every possible advantage in this society. It's just that they had it their own way for so long, they came to feel that was the natural order of things. Attempts to redress the balance just a little bit on behalf of the previously excluded seems to them, not justice, but unfairness. But it never every occurred to them just how unfair the previous system was. The average white guy gets all kinds of advantages, he just doesn't see them.Bah - I'm too young to think any residual advantage is the natural order of things. My father probably would if he was like that, and a lot of his cronies are exactly as you describe (and if TV & Movies are any guide, the "Southern Gentlemen" are in the same category).
I know the previous system was unfair, and comes from years of straight white males having complete dominion over their society, but the pendulum has swung too far. My wife can take advantage of free (read as paid by my taxes) services such as breast cancer screens, whereas I would have to pay for a prostrate exam. My neighbour can say that the payments on his car are too hard to maintain, and the government (with my taxes) will pay out his loan while he keeps the car, because he is one quarter aboriginal. My friends just got a government grant to set up a housing exchange (finding short-term government subsidised housing) because they are gay and claim that gay people have trouble getting rental accommodation in inner city areas. If I want to attend a special service for a religious festival (like the beginning of Lent) I have to apply weeks in advance, may or may not get it, and it comes off my annual leave, whereas a colleague is given a double lunch time every day and extra hours on Friday because she is Muslim (in that case, it is the company's decision, not government mandate, but still they are either trying to appear PC, or afraid of a backlash).
But, hell - I didn't do any of the things that caused this "redress". I didn't get preference in my university placement as my father's generation did - there were more girls than boys in all my uni classes. I didn't steal the land from the aborigines, I was born here the same as my neighbour was. I never turned down gay tenants, the longest tenants I've ever had in my rental unit were a gay couple. I don't want Aiysha to miss her prayers, she often used my office, but I think she should make up the time.
I've already listed the scholarship offerings at UQ - not much there for when my children want to attend.
There is a women.gov.au website on women's services, but no male equivalent. The first few links on that page are for indigenous women, lesbians and migrant/multicultural women. Where's the equivalent for the straight white man?
There are groups that need more support than others - migrant & multicultural women face enormous challenges in Australia coming from misogynist societies with little education or language skills. Handicapped people get enormous advantages in some areas, but they face far greater challenges and need the support.
For someone to want to restore a men only institution could well be a desire to return to misogyny, but it might not. I'm not sure that we should immediately assume they're
just a bunch of scumbag racists. And sexists. And almost certainly anti-Semites.
Cheers Russell C.
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